Violent statists responsible as Afghan children flee homes for the chance to learn

The first time insurgents burnt down Hazratullah's school, he helped rebuild it with donated carpets and salvaged chalkboards. But when Taliban fighters returned with guns and petrol, torching his makeshift year seven classroom, Hazratullah decided it was time to leave.

''We knew then that if we wanted to go to school, we would have to move,'' said the 14-year-old, who, like many Afghans, uses only one name.

They threatened to behead us if we kept going to school.

He and his three cousins packed clothes and blankets. Then their parents drove them to a refuge for children whose schools had been shuttered or destroyed by the Taliban. About 16 kilometres outside Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, they found the Pashtunistan School.